Ever since the official announcement came last week that David Beckham would be joining the L.A. Galaxy, there has been a ton of speculation and interest in what will happen in the U.S.
Of course there's the usual increase in ticket sales:
The expansion MLS franchise [Toronto FC] had already sold more than 10,000 season tickets as of yesterday morning, ringing up 2,600-plus since news broke Thursday that Beckham is headed to L.A.
And the usual increase in Web searches:
Hitwise data shows that UK internet searches for “David Beckham” were up 4-fold for the week ending 13th January 2007 and surpassed searches for “cristiano ronaldo” who is currently in the running for ‘Player of the Season’ for Manchester United, Beckham’s old club. Searches for Beckham’s new club “la galaxy” increased from a base of zero to overtake searches for the footballer himself. Last week searches for “la galaxy” were almost 30% higher than those for “david beckham” and “la galaxy” was the 13th most searched-for term of almost 7,000 terms that resulted in traffic to the Hitwise Sports – Football category...
Well, The Game wants to kick Beckham's ass:
Bizarrely, The Game has lashed out at footballer David Beckham, claiming he would "kick his ass". According to several reports, the rapper reacted to the recent news of Beckham signing a contract to play for Los Angeles Galaxy. However, he did also say the UK football star was a "pretty good" player. The Game is alleged to have said: "I'd kick David Beckham's ass on any given day. I'd just pick the ball up and kick the s*** out of the stadium, game over".
Yeah, good luck with that.There's even been interest from Hugh Hefner:
Hugh Hefner is going to invite David Beckham to a Playboy party. The magazine mogul is thrilled that the former England soccer captain is coming to the US to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy and is already preparing an invite for him to come to the world famous Playboy mansion. Hugh said: "I think Hollywood is gonna love him. The girls at the mansion have been talking about his move and want to be sure that we put him on the party list." The 80-year-old lothario has not forgotten about David's wife, Victoria. Hugh is going to ask the former Spice Girl if she wants to do a photo shoot for Playboy - with or without clothes.
After that, their introduction to Hollywood will finally be complete.
But his soon-to-be former club isn't too happy with the proceedings, even though they didn't really want him either:
Team president Ramon Calderon, in comments expected to further sour relations between Beckham and the Spanish club, said the English midfielder joined the Los Angeles Galaxy because there were no other takers. "The proof that our technical staff was correct not to retain him has been borne out by every other technical staff in the world not wanting him even though he was out of contract," Calderon said in speech to university students that was broadcast by Cadena COPE radio station on Tuesday. He added: "David Beckham is going to be some sort of film actor living in Hollywood."
Madrid coach Fabio Capello responded...by saying Beckham would no longer play for the team now that he has committed to another club, and would only be able to train with his teammates. That has left Beckham with the prospect of no competitive soccer for six months.Klassy. I guess some people haven't quite gotten the whole "don't burn bridges" thing.
Don't forget to play with your David Beckham paper doll! (There's even a nice dashiki to put him in.)
15 comments:
Almost right after he announced this, word leaked that another over the hill premiere league player was in talks with an MLS team.
Google News stuff
I think MLS is shaping up to be where they put the great players out to pasture.
The Beckham thing reminds me distinctly of Michael Jordan joining the Wizards.
It reminds me of the NASL bringing Pele and other stars over to the U.S. and paying way too high of a cost. It also reminds me of the USFL that tried to outbid the NFL for talent and was actually successful for a little while before pricing themselves out of the market.
Then again, would we (we as in the general sports population) be talking about MLS if it weren't for this signing?
Please someone tell me how he is making that much money to play soccer??
His contract must be worth more than the entire league combined.
I really don't get it. (I'm not joking)
Phil - if his contract were ALL salary, he would actually be making more over 5 years than every player in the history of the league had ever made combined (by about $29M).
However, "only" about $10M of his annual money is salary. $400K of this is paid as part of the league salary structure, the rest out of the AEG (owners) pocket. The rest is expected money from image rights, promotional work, etc.
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Smooth - there'd be no reason to be talking about the MLS right now without Beckham, since the season doesn't start for 3 more months :) . This is much different than Pele and the NASL. First, in MLS, each club has a stake in the success of them all under the financial model they've used for salaries and such. And it's not really comparable to the USFL deal, because Galaxy didn't have to outbid anyone. Beckham's transfer here has been in the works for nearly 2 years (read Grant Wahl's article on si.com, it lays it all out very, very well). They targeted a player who wanted to be here, and got him. Others will do the same, while teams like United will continue to scoop up gems from places like Honduras for $200K/yr. and do just as well.
While Becks is not what he was 6 years ago at Manchester United, he's far from being out to pasture. Real Madrid is a mess right now, and he was only dropped from the England squad when McLaren took over to look at new talent. I don't think the door is closed on his return, especially with Euro 2008 coming up.
Sorry, bit wordy there. :)
Ed
When MLS created the "Beckham Rule" this offseason, they also added another rule that wasn't talked about as much: they are going to allow corporate logos on the front of the jerseys. Adidas is expected to plob down the cash to put their logo on the front of, who else but L.A.'s uniforms (or kits as they are called in Europe).
As for the rest of the teams, they do have a stake but not as much as with the original single-entity model that the league was formed under. With AEG owning almost half of the teams in the league AND with a soccer-only stadium that generates more revenue than other venues, it is in AEG's best interests to bring the best players to their team(s). Also, since AEG has other business interests, they can assume more risk and spread that risk over its different properties unlike some of the individually owned franchises.
We knew that Beckham was coming to AEG and effect, L.A., when they formed a partnership to develop a soccer academy in CA. That deal was announced around the same time that Becks and his English National Team was on a tour throughout the US and playing games that were presented by either AEG directly or parties with ties to AEG.
AEG can afford Becks and I'm sure a couple other teams can draw big name players to the US. I'm sure they won't be paid as much but let's say you bring in 6 more players for a total of $10M. All of a sudden you have 7 guys making $20M a year or 40% of the leagues total salary. To make up for that, you'd have to increase your sponsorship and ticket dollars dramatically which could be a lot too ask for from a league that finally broke into the black a couple of seasons ago and has never really had the big numbers to justify the spending. This is as extreme as the NASL when they basically made promises and paid for things with checks that they knew were going to bounce. Also, I mentioned the USFL because MLS has set a precedent that they will pay top dollar for top stars. The bidding will be with international teams that want to keep their own stars. MLS will end up becoming the O's or Redskins of the soccer landscape: full of hope and overpaid rosters but not the results to justify the expenditures.
I agree that Becks is not in the twilight of his career yet. Even if he is no longer a top 5 player in the world, he's one heck of a player and easily makes L.A. a favorite this year. I also agree that his stepping down from the National Team had a little more to do with personal politics than his lost skills. But he is used for the same reasons over there as he is in his coming to America: to sell tickets and increase the spotlight.
Great responses, guys. Thanks for preventing me from having to do any work :-)
The only point I'd quibble with (and it's good-natured quibbling, o'course) is the USFL example. You won't see MLS "bidding on stars." When, for example, let me pull a name, Robinho is set to leave Real Madrid in a few years (or quicker, given the quagmire Madrid is currently), MLS won't be in for that. It's not as if Beckham = Herschel Walker. And now here comes a whole other wave of folks. I really don't think that's going to happen. The league/investors won't shell out a $45M fee for Ronaldo (the thin one) to pry him away from Manchester United.
What they will get are players slightly north of 30, still with talent, available probably on free transfers (as with Beckham), who while certainly aren't washed up, are also not the type of player who will command an 8-digit transfer fee from the Premiership or Italy, etc. Beckham is certainly a unique case. I don't know of another player that carries his level of marketing machine/image rights, etc. Will he open a door? Oh, sure. But I truly don't believe he's opened a flood gate. It's not going to turn into the NASL - that was a different beast. American soccer sucked then with a capital SUCKED. While we ain't great now, we're light years ahead of that. It is and always will be an American league. Were Beckham to have never signed, the league still would have lived for the next 40 years. I don't think that's changed.
Of note, AEG only own 3/13ths of the league, I think :) ... they sold United, own LA and a couple others. MLS investorship (if that's not a word, I'm a writer, and thus allowed to make them up!) has diversified of late and I think that will continue. AEG would love to have LA as its only team, but baby steps ...
Personally, I love what United is doing. Emilio is 28, a proven striker, relatively cheap and wants to play here. It has none of the fanfare of Beckham, but will have just as much of an effect on United's potential title contention as the Beckham move will for the Galaxy.
My only concern in this deal is clubs like KC and NE, who have no real marketing strength, and no stadium. They won't use their DP slot, so they need to be wise about bending the "big clubs" over the barrel in trades for those spots where possible. But, if they're smart, they'll be fine. And you gotta be smart to survive no matter what.
Sorry. Wordy again.
Do they realize no one watches soccer?
Phil, Mr T. once taught me that I AM somebody. Also I watch soccer.
...and I never said Beckham or Davids were a worthless players. They are certainly not going to be getting better though.
Then that makes you and I-66.
I hope you guys have deep pockets.
Well, besides me and I-66, you can throw in pretty much anyone on this planet not from the United States or Canada. I've heard they enjoy the sport. That should bump up the total fan base a bit.
Phil - come on out to a Barra tailgate this year. Beer's on us.
One of our favorite things is seeing someone hit a game for the first time, and watching the smoke come out of their heads as they convert to "the dark side." :)
I wish Phil could go to a Barra tailgate- I think it would be a real eye-opener for him! (Sadly, he's in Atlanta.)
But Eddie, Frank and I definitely plan on getting to a few! (I think he might even forgo his Screaming Eagles membership and join Barra, because he had so much fun at the Flyers game with y'all.)
There are people outside the United States?
Evidently.
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